Effects of earthworm casts produced in oilseed rape fields on amylose content and pasting properties in rice

The demand for high-quality rice production has increased in China as people's living standards are improving, and eating quality is of paramount importance to rice consumers. Amylose content and pasting properties are commonly used physicochemical parameters for evaluating the eating quality of rice. The main objective of this study was to determine whether earthworm casts produced during the oilseed growing season in riceoilseed rape rotation fields will affect the eating quality of the subsequently grown rice. A micro-plot field experiment was conducted in 2017 to investigate the effects of application of earthworm casts collected from oilseed rape fields on amylose content and pasting properties in four rice cultivars, two with high and two with low amylose contents. Results showed that application of earthworm casts only resulted in a slight increase (1%) in amylose content and did not significantly alter any of the pasting properties including pasting temperature, peak time, and peak, trough, breakdown, final, setback and consistency viscosities. Our study suggested that the earthworm casts produced during the oilseed rape-growing season in rice-oilseed rape rotation fields may have negligible effect on the eating quality of subsequently grown rice.